An arctic cold front and a strong area of low pressure that developed across the northern Rockies and moved eastward across the upper Midwest and into the northern Great Lakes, brought heavy snow, very strong winds and blizzard conditions across a large portion of western and central Minnesota. A broad area of six inches (Locally (9+ inches occurred near the communities of Little Falls and Hewitt in central Minnesota) or more fell across portions of west central and central Minnesota on Sunday December 15th. The heaviest snowfall occurred Sunday morning where periods of very heavy snowfall fell across a large area of west central and central Minnesota. In addition to the snowfall, severe wind chills of 30 to 50 below zero occurred across the region as wind speeds increased and temperatures dropped well below zero. The hardest hit areas were across west central Minnesota where significant snowfall and wind gusts in excess of 40 mph produced blizzard conditions.

Event Narrative

Snow began in the Little Falls area between 7 and 9 pm Saturday (December 13th )evening as low pressure started to intensify across the northern Plains. Light snow continued through the night and became heavy between 9 am and 11 am on Sunday. Little Falls reported 11 inches of snowfall, with between 6 to 10 inches of snowfall throughout Morrison County. In addition, wind chill values dropped to 20 to 30 below zero during the overnight period of Sunday/Monday, December 14/15th.